1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing organic sulfur acids or salts thereof which are useful as, for example, materials for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and dyestuffs, or as detergents.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of processes are known for producing organic sulfur acids and salts thereof. For example, sulfonic acids can be obtained by a process of oxidizing a thiol or disulfide with an oxidizing agent, a process of reacting an aromatic hydrocarbon with anhydrous SO.sub.3 -pyridine or chlorosulfuric acid by the use of Friedel-Crafts reaction, and a process of subjecting an unsaturated compound to free radical addition. These processes, however, require extreme reaction conditions or inevitably produce large amounts of by-products. Separately, a process for directly and efficiently sulfonating non-aromatic hydrocarbons has not yet been known.